Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on Saudi disappearances: ‘There’s a lot more here than people realize’

Oregon’s senior U.S. senator says his briefing by a top federal law enforcement official has led him to believe the growing number of university students from Saudi Arabia who’ve vanished while facing criminal charges in the U.S. may only be the tip of the iceberg.

“My sense is that there’s a lot more here than people realize,” Sen. Ron Wyden told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday.

He added: “I’m not going to let the Saudis operate as some kind of medieval regime that can flout modern diplomatic norms.”

Wyden, a Democrat who sits on the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, began asking senior Trump administration officials about the Saudi government’s suspected role in the students’ disappearance after an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive late last year.

All five of the Oregon cases involved young men studying at a public college or university with assistance from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time of their arrest.

In at least four of those cases, the Saudi government paid the defendant’s bail and legal fees. Three surrendered their passports. Federal law enforcement officials confirmed at least two returned to Saudi Arabia.

The revelations have added mounting scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s conduct abroad after the kingdom’s role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last fall.

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, was dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkish officials. The CIA believes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing.

Saudi officials have insisted the crown prince had no knowledge or role in the Oct. 2 killing, though prosecutors in the country have now charged 11 of its citizens in Khashoggi’s death.

The kingdom has also denied playing any role in helping Saudi citizens escape prosecution in the U.S.

“The notion that the Saudi government actively helps citizens evade justice after they have been implicated in legal wrongdoing in the U.S. is not true,” the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., told CNN in a statement last week.

Wyden expressed skepticism over the Saudi government’s most recent claims.

“The striking part about that statement is how similar it is to the denials that they made early on about the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” he said.